By Alan Hunter, Founder and CEO, NRN
While Australian energy retailers have been debating the future of distributed energy, a Texas-based company has already written the playbook. The market has responded with a valuation that should make every C-suite executive take notice. It’s a $4bn wake-up call for energy retailers.
BASE Power, an energy retailer that combines home batteries with electricity plans, has recently completed a major capital raise at a multibillion-dollar valuation. What’s remarkable is that this isn’t a software company commanding tech-style multiples, but a fundamentally energy retail business that has proven the market’s growing appetite for Energy-as-a-Service.
This isn’t hype. It’s a signal that global capital markets see Energy-as-a-Service as infrastructure-grade investment, not commodity retail.
The Model That’s Rewriting Energy Retail
BASE’s proposition is deceptively simple: customers get a 25 kWh home battery included with their energy plan, pay around 8.5¢/kWh (plus network charges), and receive whole-home backup as standard. No upfront costs. No separate solar or battery negotiations. Just cheaper, more reliable power with a monthly membership fee.
The economics work because BASE monetises what every retailer wishes they could: fleet flexibility. By orchestrating thousands of batteries for off-peak charging, peak discharge, and grid services, they’re able to subsidise retail rates through arbitrage and ancillary service revenue while maintaining reserve capacity for customer resilience. The battery isn’t an add-on; it’s the business model.
“What BASE has proven is that the future of energy retail isn’t about selling electrons, it’s about orchestrating electrons,” says Alan Hunter, CEO of NRN. “The question for Australian retailers is simple: will you own the relationship with distributed energy resources, or will you be relegated to a commodity provider while others capture the value?”
Why Investors Are Paying Infrastructure Multiples
BASE’s recent $1 billion Series C, following a $200 million raise earlier, reflects a fundamental re-rating of what battery-backed retail represents. This isn’t being valued as a traditional energy retailer; it’s being priced as software-orchestrated, asset-backed infrastructure with recurring revenue streams.
The investment thesis is compelling: For energy retailers considering this model, the investment thesis creates a clear strategic imperative:
- Predictable cash flows from long-term customer relationships with embedded hardware create multi-year revenue visibility that traditional retail can’t match
- Multiple revenue streams stack margin enhancement on top of retail margin, arbitrage profits and grid service payments that flow directly to the bottom line
- Defensive moat through deployment velocity and standardised installation playbooks makes replication increasingly difficult as first movers scale
- Asset appreciation compounds as battery fleet value grows with grid stress and renewable penetration, turning installed base into appreciating infrastructure
When telemetry de-risks fleet performance and proves arbitrage returns, the cost of capital falls and valuations expand. BASE has demonstrated this at scale in ERCOT, and now global capital is backing them to replicate it across markets.
The Customer Lock-In Advantage
Here’s what should worry traditional retailers most: once customers experience default outage protection combined with lower bills, the collapse in churn to energy-only offers is evident. BASE isn’t competing on price alone; they’re competing on value proposition, and backup power during blackouts is a benefit customers remember during the next storm.
In Texas, where grid reliability concerns are front-of-mind, this is a powerful differentiator. Australia isn’t experiencing Texas-level grid stress today, but the trajectory is clear: increasing extreme weather events, aging network infrastructure, and higher renewable penetration point toward a future where reliability becomes a primary customer concern. The retailers who build resilience into their offering now will own that relationship when reliability premiums emerge.
BASE’s hardware specifications tell the story of their ambition. Their first-generation system delivers 20-25 kWh storage with 11.4 kW output, already superior to most standalone home batteries. Their second-generation unit targets 30 kWh with 24 kW output, enabling longer backup duration and higher-value grid dispatch. By standardising SKUs and installation processes, deployment velocity becomes both an operational moat and a valuation flywheel.
Three Lessons for Australian Energy Retailers
1. Innovation: Make DER the plan, not a product
BASE’s model demonstrates that complexity is the enemy of retention. Customers don’t want to understand time-of-use rates, demand charges, or battery state-of-charge; they want lower bills and backup power. The simplicity of “we provide the battery, you get better service and lower costs” creates customer relationships that don’t churn. In an Australian market where switching rates remain high, the retailer that can demonstrate tangible, daily value through integrated DER will own customer lifetime value.
2. Low Churn: Build the relationship around reliability and simplicity
Australian networks are increasingly congested at the feeder level. Automating battery charging during off-peak periods and discharging during scarcity events, while maintaining a reserve for customer backup, relieves infrastructure stress exactly where it occurs. Networks will pay for this capability, either through explicit programs or avoided upgrade costs.
3. Simplicity: Price with clarity, capture value beneath
Keep network charges transparent as pass-throughs while positioning DER assets, solar, and battery as utility appliance fees. Customers understand paying for hardware and service; they don’t understand complexity. BASE’s pricing demonstrates that simplicity at the headline level creates space for sophisticated value capture beneath it. Australian retailers should learn from this: the customer-facing proposition should be effortlessly clear, while the backend orchestration drives margin.
The Australian Opportunity
Australia’s market conditions are arguably more favourable than Texas for this model:
- Higher retail electricity prices create larger arbitrage opportunities
- Stronger renewable penetration drives more volatile spot prices
- Network operators actively seeking distributed solutions for constraint relief
- Government support for household battery adoption and VPP programs
- Sophisticated energy consumers familiar with solar and battery concepts
NRN is uniquely positioned to translate the BASE playbook to Australian conditions. Through our Solar Retail Partners channel, “we can offer competitive energy plans that include battery installation at no cost to the consumer”, orchestrating fleets for arbitrage and fast frequency services across retailer books.
The Window Is Open, But Closing
BASE’s success has created a category, and categories have winners and everyone else. The first movers who achieve scale will own the customer relationship, the battery fleet data, and the brand association with modern, reliable energy. Those who wait will find themselves explaining why their plans don’t include DER assets like solar and battery, or why their rates aren’t competitive with integrated Energy-as-a-Service offers.
Global capital is already engaged, BASE’s fundraising demonstrates billion-dollar appetites for residential storage platforms that combine recurring revenue with infrastructure-grade performance. Australian retailers who move decisively can access this capital to fund deployment and accelerate market position.
The strategic question for Australian energy retail C-suites is no longer “Should we explore battery-as-a-plan?” It’s “How fast can we deploy, and who will we deploy with?”
BASE Power has proved the model works at scale. They’ve demonstrated that investors will pay infrastructure multiples for it. And most importantly, they’ve shown that customers overwhelmingly choose it when given the option.
The future of energy retail bundles the electron with the storage that delivers it reliably and cheaply. Australian retailers can lead this transition or watch from the sidelines as new entrants claim the category.
The choice is yours. But the clock is already ticking.
About NRN
NRN is Australia’s leading energy-as-a-service provider, partnering with energy retailers to deploy integrated battery and solar solutions that deliver lower costs, enhanced reliability, and new revenue opportunities through fleet orchestration and grid services.
Interested in learning how your retail business can adopt the battery-as-a-plan model?
Contact NRN to explore partnership opportunities and deployment strategies for the Australian market.
Contact: Alan Hunter, CEO – growthteam@nrn.com.au
